Gatsby was frustrated at trying to pay his way through college by working as a janitor. "He stayed there two weeks, dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny, to destiny itself, and despising the janitor's work with which he was to pay his way through."

So, he dropped out, started wandering the banks of Lake Superior, and eventually bumped into Dan Cody...thus follows the transformation of James Gatz into Jay Gatsby.